In the last decade the building was used was as a furniture shop with its own workshop facility. The main hall of the theatre had since been completely gutted out for this purpose, with the old seating removed and scrapped. The upper circle however had been left preserved, but had since been ransacked by scrap thieves. The large projection room was completely empty, with only the dark sooty silhouettes left of where equipment had once been installed. The small projectionist’s room however still held on to some artefacts, with an old reel table and stock cupboard still in situ. The air inside this room was hot and thick and carried a distinctive whiff of chemicals about it, much like that of a photographic darkroom.

Sadly, sometime in 2014, the Federal was completely demolished. It was a real landmark in town and Malacca is surely poorer without it. Yet another new retail development is planned to be built on this site.